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Scuba Diving in Sri Lanka

The island nation of Sri Lanka is considered as one of the most beautiful and a top notch place as a scuba diving destination. Its rich coral and marine life make Sri Lanka a must visit location for diving!

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We are South Asia's largest adventure portal. We have many Scuba diving adventure packages for you in Srilanka offered by professional Scuba Diving companies

Interested in Scuba Diving in Sri Lanka but never dived before? Then PADI's Discover Scuba Diving or SSI's Try Scuba programs in Sri Lanka offer perfect opportunity for you to get introduced to Scuba under the careful supervision of certified instructors. Already a certified diver ? then enjoy the beautiful locations that Sri Lanka has to offer by choosing among the many Fun Scuba diving packages offered in the island nation.

With a coastline stretching 1600 kilometers, Sri Lanka has been a marvelous nation of stunning beauty for centuries. With the warm Indian Ocean surrounding the island, Sri Lanka comprises of a breathtaking spectrum of marine species of all sizes and shapes. The nation's coastline is home to many amazing diving sites, some offering the opportunity to discover ship wrecks! Scuba diving is a popular occupation in Sri Lanka and hence courses can be found will provide adequate training with the appropriate gear.

Scuba Diving season in Sri Lanka varies depending on which side of the island nation you wish to dive. For the North-East coast, May to October is the optimal time frame to dive. Whereas for the West and South West coast, October to May would be the peak season for diving. The visibility in Sri Lanka roughly varies from around 10-25 m, depending on the season. The most comfortable aspect of diving in Sri Lanka is the water temperature, which is usually around 27° C for most of the year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scuba diving is absolutely safe as long as the diver follows the guidelines set by PADI/SSI, uses proper gear and dives within his skill level.
Statistically speaking, recreational scuba diving is safe as swimming and way safer than driving a car or motorbike or running a marathon!
Perhaps the biggest danger of Scuba diving is that its highly addictive. Those who taste Scuba diving in Discover scuba diving programs come back for diving courses and post certification and keep looking for scuba diving trips in all their vacations post that!

No, you don't need to know swimming - If you want to just experience scuba diving (typically Discover Scuba Diving experience offered by all Dive centers) either at a pool or even in open water(sea).
Yes, you need to know swimming - If you want to take up scuba diving courses like PADI (OWD) Open water Diving or PADI (SD) Scuba Diver or any other PADI/SSI course. These courses require that you be able to swim for 200 meters on your own and float for 10 minutes. Even though you don't swim underwater in Scuba diving and propel yourself using fins, knowing swimming boosts your confidence underwater and helps in your and your teams overall diving experience. So its suggested you learn swimming before you take up these courses.
Many non-swimmers from Bangalore and other cities who experience discover scuba program in their holidays typically learn swimming at a pool after their holiday and then come back and enroll for OWD course! learning swimming is totally worth the effort for being able to do OWD later.

Sharks are some of the most beautiful and majestic creatures of the sea and most divers would be extremely happy if they can spot a shark in their dive!
Rest assured the chances of sharks attacking scuba divers is next to nothing! Firstly, sighting a shark off the coast of India is very rare. Secondly, sharks in this part of the world are not aggressive (tropical water sharks are not aggressive compared to sharks found in temperate waters) and thirdly even the 'aggressive' sharks have very low propensity to attack divers. We are not part of their food chain and they only attack occasionally if you feed them mistaking you for their food or disturb them etc.
There is higher chance of being attacked by a dog on your way back home then being attacked by a shark in your dive!

Scuba diving is one of the few adventure sports where physical fitness is not such a big deal. The only physical activity is when you are lugging the equipment around. Once you are in the water its all easy. There is hardly a necessity for hard swimming due to the use of fins unless there is heavy currents.

By definition adventure sports usually have a mix of being outdoors, in an unhospitable environment, inherent danger and have use of highly specialized gear. Going by this definition scuba diving definitely falls in the adventure sports bracket. Regular recreational diving may not have a great deal of physical exertion, but has all other aspects of adventure sports.